Ear pieces which are secured in close proximity to a persons ear in order to effect sound input are well known. Numerous patents have issued directed toward myriad variations upon the basic theme of sound amplification through the use of a mechanical ear cup.
Patents such as those issued to Amfitheatrof, Pat. No. 2,537,201; Brown, Pat. No. 4,768,613; Fuss et al, Pat. No. 4,574,912, as well as most of the prior art patents have has their purpose the amplification of sound. In order to amplify sound it is by its very terms necessary to direct additional sound waves into the ear which would not normally enter therein. This is accomplished by blocking sound waves which would normally bypass the ear and reflecting them into the ear. Thus, these ear cups serve as sound wave gatherers and direct these additional sound waves into the human ear in order to amplify the sound. These ear cups of necessity utilize reflective surfaces of whatever configuration they believe which will most readily gather and redirect the sound into the human ear and thus these ear cups function in a manner very similar to an echo chamber.
These types of devices create an environment which is contrary to that which is desired when listening to stereophonic music. As is well known, in any professional theater or music hall, the primary auditory goal is to enable the listener to clearly hear the distinct sounds as they come from the performers or instruments with little or no reflection from the walls, ceilings or other portions of the buildings. When this is successfully accomplished, the listener is able to distinguish, as for an example with an orchestra, the various instruments and where they are located while the music connoisseur is able to further distinguish tones of particular instruments as well as whether a particular instrument is in unison with the rest of the orchestra.
Where an environment results in the reflection of sound waves several phenomena exist all of Which distort the actual sounds. First, sound waves which reflect off the wall will encounter either sound waves emanating from the source or else other reflected sound waves. This results in either a standing wave which cancels the sound wave emanating from the speaker or else the combination of the sound waves which distorts the speaker sound wave. Secondly, sound waves reflected off of a surface reach the listener's ear out of phase with those sound waves that travel directly from the speaker to the listeners ear. These out of phase sound waves prevent the listener from distinguishing between proper and improper timing as well as preventing him from determining the origin or location of a particular voice or musical instrument sound.
Nevertheless, the prior art devices all gather sound by reflecting or redirecting sound waves and therefore they all create, to varying degrees, sound wave distortion and out of phase sound impressions. By reflecting or redirecting sound waves to the listener these devices also create an effective increase in volume to the listener which has an interesting effect on the perception of the listener. More particularly, any increase in volume will generally be perceived by the relatively inexperienced listener to result in an increase in clarity. In fact however, there is no increase in clarity. This may be shown by questioning the listener regarding the characteristics of the composition, such as instrument placement, tone of particular instruments and unity, of the music being played. The listener will be unable to answer these questions accurately because there is in fact no improvement in clarity with simple volume increases. Nevertheless, because the increase in volume draws the listeners attention away from the more subtle aspects of the musical composition, the existing errors or inconsistencies tend to be blocked out resulting in the misconception that clarity has been improved.
The patent to M. Weil, U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,150 recognizes the need to block the reception, by the ear, of sound waves reflecting from the walls, ceilings or other reflective surfaces in the listener's environment. However, the sound interceptors of Weil also serve as points of reflection since sound waves directed toward the ear will be reflected off of the honeycomb sound entry apertures and the outside wall. This configuration will result in a reverberation that Weil attempts to prevent by using release apertures. Nevertheless, Weil, as all the other patents, indicates that there is a volume increase which volume is of necessity increased due to the sound gathering effect of the device which inherently means out of phase sound waves and multiple sound wave interference.
When testing speakers and other sound or wave transmitting devices it is common to use an anechoic chamber. These chambers are generally comprised of a plurality of cone shaped, sound absorptive pylons which extend, from virtually all points of the walls, ceiling and floor of the chamber outwardly into the room. The purpose of these pylons is to absorb all of the sound waves which impact thereon so that a receiver within the chamber can measure the true and accurate characteristics of the sound waves for analysis of the quality of the transmitter. In such a chamber there is obviously no sound amplification since the only sound waves impacting on the receiver are those which emanate directly from the transmission source. Assuming good quality speakers, a person listening to an orchestra recording in an anechoic chamber would have virtually the same auditory experience as if listening to the orchestra live when seated central to the orchestra and in a quality music hall where sound reflections are virtually eliminated. In such an environment virtually each and every group of instruments, as well as instruments in each group, can be clearly discerned as can their location relative to the rest of the orchestra.
Unfortunately, such optimum conditions were not previously available for the average or even non average music lover.